


they tell my story only in rhymes

by cuneifire (orphan_account)



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: F/M, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 16:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19749439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/cuneifire
Summary: Truth is a buyable commodity.





	they tell my story only in rhymes

**Author's Note:**

> because good love stories can be told a million times over.

If they had been keeping track of the week then, they would’ve known it started on a Tuesday. It always starts on a Tuesday. 

.

They say: Kore was bored. That her mother’s realm was a cage of vines pressing ever closer, that she would’ve done anything to escape. 

They’re half right, as always. 

The truth is: Kore loves nothing more than the wind in her hair, the grass at her bare feet. The feel of flowers as they grow underneath her fingers, the thought of  _ creating.  _ The way the water reflects the sun’s light at dawn. The moon, constantly chasing after the sun. 

(She wrote a story, once, about the moon and the sun, how they chased each other for all eternity but could never touch, how the moon was nothing without the sun’s touch, how the sun would give anything to hear the moon laugh, how they faded and forgot everything eventually, how they loved each other anyway. She never finished it.) 

The truth is: The grip of her mother’s hand, warm on her shoulder, feels like suffocation. The rivers will flood. The trees whisper her death. She wants to run, but she can never run far enough. 

(And she will never be able to, because demons are always faster than the people they chase.) 

.

They say: Hades wanted a wife. That he got a glimpse of a girl, beautiful as a summer day, and decided he would have no other. 

It’s not wrong, precisely. 

The truth is: The underworld is not as dreary as they say. The palace is lit with golden lanterns, the souls are candlelights in the dark. Flowers grow in the endless moonlight. Elysium makes for a nice walk. Tartarus makes for torture. Asphodel is a place to get lost. And the rest of the map is uncharted, and that makes for an adventure. 

(Hades would have never traded his realm for any other’s. Zeus may rule the sky, and Posideon the seas, but Hades, Hades controls death itself. And his brothers may brag all they like, and the other gods may shy away from his grasp, but that is only because they know that everything ends eventually, and when it does, Hades will be riding black horses into a dying sun.) 

The truth is: Hades was  _ bored.  _ He didn’t want a wife: he wanted a challenge. 

(Hades will always want a challenge. He is the one who chose to rein in death, after all.) 

.

They say: They met, and it was true love.

They say: They met, and it was nothing more than rapine. 

The truth is: Persephone saw Hades before Hades saw Persephone. Everyone was afraid of Hades, but Persephone walked up to him and didn’t leave. 

The truth is: Everyone wanted to cage Persephone, but Hades said,  _ wild things are best untamed. _

The truth is: Persephone saw the underworld, and knew that if she let herself do so, she could be free. She hesitated, and took her time, but the god of death is nothing if not patience. 

The truth is: The first thing Hades said to her when he saw her lips red with pomegranate juice was ‘Go ahead. You can run now.’

She doubted that he expected her to take him with him.

.

They say that the gods don’t die. That mortals may end, but our ideals, our deities live on forever. 

They’re wrong.

This is how it ends: A fallen hero’s blood spilled across the daïs, a sly comment on a woman’s part, the blood of a snake and the sound of a cat’s footsteps ringing. 

This is how it ends: A smile, a kiss, and the sound of a knife slitting throat for the last time. 

This is how it ends: Husband and wife, hand in hand. 

This is how it ends: Hades and Persephone, on black horses, riding off into a dying sun which has finally met its moon. 


End file.
